A few months back, longtime FR friend Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee started on a new project for the Sunday Opinion page of the Bee. This new feature is called "The Conversation" — they pick a topic, and ask someone to pen a lead editorial on the subject, and then get a couple of others to pen smaller companion pieces (to start a "conversation"). Today’s topic is the Future of the Republican Party and the lead editorial on the topic is penned by yours truly. The other, shorter columns are from Tony Quinn and State Senator Abel Maldonado. The Bee’s editorial board also weighed in with their own ten cents (with some sort of bizarre "we need a Republican Party that believes government should be smaller, but we think they shouldn’t be intractable and should actually compromise to give us bigger government — bizarre).
I AM GOING TO REPRINT IN FULL MY SUBMISSION BELOW. BUT I WANT TO ENCOURAGE ALL FR READERS TO CLICK THROUGH HERE AND PARTICIPATE IN THE ONLINE DISCUSSION AT THE BEE’S WEBSITE.
The Conversation: GOP needs to stand on its principles
By Jon Fleischman
Special to The Bee
Published: Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008 | Page 1E
**There is more – click the link**
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
This should be required reading for our Republican nominees!
As you said, Jon, our Republican legislators seem to “get it.” They understand that Big Government is the problem, not the solution.
We need to remind Governor Schwarzenegger and his Democrat advisors that he was elected to cut taxes, not to raise them.
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
It is refreshing to see such a bold and true statement coming from a CA Republican. For years, I’ve seen the CRP stagnate and continue to back RINOs or Democrats like Schwartzennegger for Governor. In doing so, the CRP lost many conservatives to third parties. I remember, as a new Republican in 1996, going to the primary “convention” at the Burlingame Hyatt Regency and walking around among the delegates and other conventioneers. There didn’t seem to be a real conservative among them–they were nearly all RINOs! I listened to various speakers and realized that this wasn’t the party I belonged in! So I became an Independent conservative, and that is where I remain today. The national GOP went so far to the left, thanks in large part to Bush and those around him (all RINOs, not a real conservative among them), that there really isn’t much difference anymore between the two parties. If the CRP wants to win future elections and grow to be the force it once was, it will have to encourage the discipline that Mr. Fleischman speaks of in this excellent and timely piece.
One of the Republicans we need in CA is conservative libertarian Republican Whip Chuck DeVore who’s in a “David vs Goliath” fight to unseat Barbara Boxer in 2010. DeVore is the kind of no-nonsense conservative we need in D.C. DeVore and great conservatives like Tom McClintock are leaders we need.